Carlos Sainz Jr. sees better days ahead for Williams after ‘challenging’ 2026 start

Formula 1 is a sport that does not stay still, and challenges teams and drivers to adapt at unfathomable speeds both on and off the track.

That is the test facing Carlos Sainz Jr. and Williams as the grid embarks on this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Williams hoped to start the year in a strong position, with a focus dating back to a season ago on the incoming regulation changes. But after some struggles to begin the year, the team arrived in Montreal sitting eighth in the standings, with just five points to show from four race weekends.

Still, there are signs of improvement at Williams, starting with the upgrades the team brought to the Miami Grand Prix at the start of the month. Those upgrades saw Sainz and teammate Alexander Albon both bring home points from Florida, and with more upgrades coming this week to Montreal, the team is trending in the right direction.

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, SB Nation caught up with Sainz over Microsoft Teams on Thursday to talk about the start to the season, the new site of the Spanish Grand Prix, and what will make 2026 a success for the team.

The 2026 season so far

Even with the team’s success in Miami, Williams hoped to be further up the grid when the 2026 season began. Last year the team focused on the incoming regulation set, hoping to be on the front foot when the changes arrived.

But as Sainz outlined as our conversation began, it has been a “challenging” start to the season for the team.

“Well, I think it’s definitely been a challenging start to the season,” started Sainz. 

“I think we all expected quite a bit more from the start of 2026, but unfortunately we’ve hit probably one of the first bumps on the road in our time together, and this has set us back into not being where we would like to be in terms of performance.”

However, the team is making changes on and off the track, changes that have already panned out and delivered improved performance. Williams brought a significant upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix, one that included a new floor for the FW48, revised bodywork, front wing changes, a new rear suspension, and even a reduction in the overall weight of their 2026 challenger.

And speaking ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Team Principal James Vowles noted that more upgrades are coming to Montreal.

“We have more performance coming from Montreal,” Vowles said ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. “Again, it’s an odd situation where we’ve got these two weeks and we want to maximize these two weeks to the best of our ability, or three before the grand prix. And so, the pipeline is a little bit still up in the air as to what we can 100% deliver for that, but there could be a nice sizeable amount of performance.”

Williams indeed brought upgrades to Montreal, confirmed in their Car Presentation Submission on Friday. Those include changes to the front suspension of the FW48 as well as a repositioned exhaust tailpipe.

There are also some changes off the track, as the team confirmed on Thursday that Piers Thynne was joining the leadership team as the new Chief Optimisation and Planning Officer.

Sainz told me on Thursday that because of the changes, the future looks bright.

“Because of that, obviously now there’s a lot of changes going on in the team and quite a big plan to rebuild and react to the things that we know we haven’t done well over the winter, and hopefully it creates a chain of reaction that will actually make things even better in the future,” said the driver.

We then discussed that new regulation set, which was the biggest overall of the technical regulations in the history of Formula 1. The hope was that the incoming regulations would improve the racing spectacle, so I asked the veteran driver how the racing this season was from his point of view.

“I think there’s been a bit of everything,” started Sainz.

“I think it’s been an interesting change for the drivers. It’s challenged us a lot to learn different skills and different ways to drive, on an energy-starved car.”

Sainz then noted that despite that challenge, the cars feel “better” than last year.

“I think mainly for me, the cars actually feel quite nice to drive.  The aerodynamics and the suspension feel, I would say, even better than last year.”

Still, the sport is working with the teams and the governing bodies to get things right, and Sainz noted that those improvements are coming.  

“But the PU [power unit] has certainly created some challenges that I’m personally not a big fan of in Formula One, and it’s been probably more challenging than everyone would have anticipated, and because of that, the sport, FIA, and FOM, and the teams are putting together some changes to improve it, and react to what we know is something that is probably not the best solution for F1.”

Speaking of the future, Sainz and the rest of the grid will head to the Madring later this season, the site of the new track in Madrid and the new Spanish Grand Prix. Sainz was the first driver to get a chance to tackle the new circuit alongside Lawrence Barretto, which made for an incredible bit of content:

I asked Sainz about the new track, and the new Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.

“I think Madrid is gonna be, I hope it’s gonna be, a special, special race,” started Sainz.

“I think it’s important that when a new track comes into a calendar that it has character, and it’s different. It’s charismatic. And I think Madrid from the laps I did the other day has quite a bit of that, has very interesting sections of a track with a massive banking corner that ends up in a huge compression that you only see the sky for a bit,” described the Spanish driver.

“So it has some interesting corners, and I’m hoping the event is gonna run well. We are used to creating or hosting pretty big events during the year. People say that Madrid is a great city, so I’m hoping that people will enjoy it.”

Looking to Montreal and beyond

Our conversation then turned to this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, as well as the rest of the season.

As many discussions regarding the Canadian Grand Prix begin, we started with the weather. Forecasts are calling for some rain over the weekend, potentially impacting the Grand Prix on Sunday. Sainz outlined that weather would make for an “interesting” environment under the new regulations.

“It looks right now like Friday and Saturday will be dry, and there’s a chance of rain on Sunday,” started Sainz. 

“If there is, I think it’s gonna be quite clear that the rain on Sunday could create a lot of different situations with the new power units, but also I think it would be the first time with these cars in the wet. 

“So if that rain arrives on Sunday, it would be interesting to see.”

This is also the first time that the Canadian Grand Prix will see the F1 Sprint format, with qualifying for the shorter race coming on Friday after just one hour of practice. Sainz told me that the layout of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve suits the format well.

 “I think, a sprint is a circuit it suits well, as it’s possible to overtake,” said Sainz before cautioning that “with these new engines also it’s gonna be quite a big challenge on this long straight, so a lot to prepare for.”

I asked Sainz to elaborate on the challenges that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will pose to the drivers given the new regulation set.

“It’s very challenging for the driver because you’re always debating whether to push more on the braking or prepare more for the exit of the chicanes.  You always run super close to the walls. It’s low grip. There’s quite a bit of sliding so as a driver, there’s a lot of things you need to keep balancing with the add-on this year that we’re also gonna need to be looking at our PU batteries quite a lot in those long straights,” outlined Sainz. 

 “So, yeah, it’s gonna for sure be one of the challenging ones.”

As for what Sainz and Williams can achieve this weekend, the driver hopes they can be in the fight for points once more, as they were in Miami.

“I think we’re coming off the back of more of a positive weekend in Miami where we were certainly performing more [than] at the beginning of the season. We’ve brought a few upgrades to Miami that worked well. We brought another few here which we’re hoping to also be a bit more competitive,” started Sainz. 

“I think the combination of these things hopefully will make us fight for the points again here in Canada, and then we will need more of these to come if we want to keep going in the right direction.”

And what does that right direction look like? What is a successful season for Sainz and Williams?

In a word, speed.

“I think for me now, it will be a lot about how this season ends, not how it started,“ said Sainz when I asked him what a successful season looks like.

“So evaluating and seeing the amount of progress that we’re able to do after such a big bump and setback of the start of the season,” continued the driver. “I’m really hoping that we can finish the season strong and show this year resilience to the setback,adapt to the situation, and manage to correct the mistakes.

“And end the season strongly, not so much caring about the points that we get, the amount of positions we gained through the year, but just being strong at the end of the season, and being fast, and showing that we’ve developed the car a lot.

“And we’ve become very, very quick.” 

That mission continues this weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix.